Blended or hybrid TV services that combine digital content and over-the-top (OTT) services with traditional television offer pay TV operators new ways to engage viewers and drive monetization. It’s a space that’s starting to heat up, especially in Europe and among regional ILECs in the United States, and it’s one that SeaChange International will be hitting hard during its 2014 International CES (News - Alert) debut in January.

The vendor plans to demonstrate software and services that power multiscreen offerings, including blended entertainment services incorporating video-on-demand (VOD), linear television and OTT. Specifically, the company said that it plans to showcase headed and headless media gateways based on SeaChange Nucleus and the industry Reference Design Kit (RDK); the pay-as-you-grow SeaChange Cloud Adrenalin service; and unified multi-device subscriber experiences built with SeaChange Nitro.

"Television service providers are in the best position to bridge the gulf between consumer satisfaction and the disparate array of content choices," said Alan Hoff, SeaChange's vice president of strategic marketing. "Blended entertainment services are emerging to unite whatever consumers want in TV and OTT through the convenience of a single provider relationship that works at home and on the go."

SeaChange Nucleus gateway software, integrated with Adrenalin and multiple customer premises equipment makes and models, will demonstrate media sharing, whole home DVR and other popular capabilities across connected home devices and Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) clients, which offer peer-to-peer connections between devices. Leveraging the RDK, Nucleus demonstrations will include the recently launched NETGEAR HMG7000 headless media gateway, and other integration examples.

The focus is timely: The global broadcast and streaming video equipment market topped $2 billion in 2012 and is forecast by Infonetics (News - Alert) to grow about 12% in 2013.

“With competition and content heating up, pay-TV providers are transitioning their traditional, broadcast-focused video processing environments to ones that can ingest, process, deliver, and decode video content from multiple sources,” noted Jeff Heynen, principal analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research (News - Alert). “At the same time, content owners and studios are also adjusting their workflow and video output to support multiscreen and streaming services.”

Heynen added: “The net result of these transitions is steady investment in the platforms necessary to optimize video streams for a growing list of end devices and formats.”